Panic Over …

written by Julie Holmwood

You don't feel like you're in panic mode. You know what you want (all 4000 things).

You’re excited, life is going well. But you just can’t seem to want to get up in the morning and when you do, you can’t find that first thing. The place to start. What to do. So you end up doing nothing at all. Ever had those days? Weeks? Months?

Yes, we all have! They are called periods of panic and overwhelm. It is when your mind is so full of different ideas that you can’t really grab onto one fast enough, before the next one spins around and knocks it off it’s pride of place. Kind of like everything you want is on a rotating wheel that is spinning too fast

Fear not, help is at hand!

The first thing you need, to calm the panic, is an old-fashioned pen and piece of paper. Does your list fall into categories? Are there things at work? Things at home? Things for yourself maybe?

Create your own Mind Map. I have a very simple version that I use very successfully. Starting with the overall subject, put a cloud with that title in the centre of your page. In this case if it is all linked to you, that would be your starting point.

Because there are three areas of your life that you want to do things within, place three clouds around you and add those subjects

Now start to think about the items in more detail; develop a new process for work – that gets a link from the work cloud. Go to the gym. Send that in a link from the myself cloud. Paint the bathroom. That is the home cloud.

If something is a sub category then send it as a link from that subject. Within an hour or two you will have a piece of paper covered in words and clouds.

How to get all your tasks done without any panic

Look at all of those things. There are a lot right? Too many to start in one day or even one week. Pick two at the most from each category and highlight them. They are your key tasks.

You might find it even easier if you pick one from each to get you going. Now when you are at work you have a focus; task X. When you go home you need to create a division of time so that you have time to do ‘home stuff’ and time to do ‘me stuff’

Create a plan for how you will action each point. The more detailed the easier it is to follow and implement.

If your plan for yourself is to go to the gym but you are not a member of anywhere yet, step one is to look at options. Pick a gym. Go along. Take the tour. Even doing those steps (which haven’t involved any actual exercise as yet) will get you feeling better.

The beauty of the map is that as soon as you have completed one task you can revisit it and check what you want to do next

Panic be gone!

Remember though that life is a moveable feast. What you want today may no longer inspire you tomorrow. If it doesn’t then just cross it off. Add something new that you do want to do

Fun, isn’t it :-)

Oh and did you notice, all of your get up and go … just got up and came back!

Are you frustrated by your career success (or lack of it)? Are you really good at what you do but you just can’t work out how to get someone to realise? Is it difficult to get taken seriously where you are? Do you just wish you could find your dream job and be happy?

There’s nothing wrong with you. Most people have felt like you do at some point in their career. We are your career solution experts. Find out how to work with us here